In the charged particle beam equipment, when performing observation or machining of a sample, it is necessary to set a position of the sample that is put under observation or to machining and positions of biprisms etc. in a situation preferable for observation or machining to an optical axis of a charged particle beam optical system. For this setting, a freedom of rotation of the charged particle beam in a plane on which the sample etc. is located may be required. Therefore, as a device having a mechanism that is rotatable in an XY plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical system of the charged particle beam or in a slightly inclining plane, rotary holders, such as a rotary holder in the electron microscope etc. and a rotary electron biprism holder in the electron beam holography microscope, have been put in practical use. When adjusting a position of the sample and positions of the biprism etc., the operator can adjust easily these rotary holders so that they may attain predetermined relations to the optical axis of the charged particle beam optical system by fine adjusting them in an X-axis direction and in a Y-axis direction (the optical axis of the optical system of the charged particle beam equipment is represented by a Z-axis) while viewing an observation screen.
However, when the adjustment of the position of the sample that is intended to be observed or machined and the adjustment of the position of the biprism etc. come with rotation, the adjustment is complicated. This is because it is normal to adjust the part that is intended to be observed and machined so that it may be disposed on the optical axis, and generally, this position does not agree with a rotation center of the rotary mechanism of the rotary holder. When any operation accompanied by a rotation is performed in this optical system, travels of attention-focused positions of the sample and the biprism occur in a rotation plane incident to this rotation operation, which results in a displacement of the position of the sample at which observation or machining is intended to be done and a displacement of the biprism etc. To correct this displacement, the displacement incident to the rotation operation is corrected by making it move in the X-axis direction and in the Y-axis direction in the XY plane so that the part in concern may not deviate from an observation view field or a machining position by visual observation each time the rotation operation of the sample holder or biprism holder is performed.
This correction operation accompanying this rotation operation is a time-consuming operation. Since the rotation operation itself is not a frequently performed operation in the charged particle beam equipment, there is no precedent where the rotation operation and the correction operation in an XY plane are controlled being connected to the each other. Therefore, currently this operation is recognized by the operator as an adjustment operation that the operator should perform naturally.